It was business as usual in the nation's capital on Sunday despite the presence of the anti-gun Million Mom March, which drew only 2,000 people, a fraction of the number expected to attend.
| Sponsors estimated 2,000, so it was prolly about 500, 490 of whom were bored stiff. The organizers called it a "success." |
The rally was billed as the kickoff to the "Halt the Assault" tour, a nationwide campaign to renew the so-called "assault weapons" ban, which expires in September.
| They are going to tour the US in a, surprise, surprise, pink bus. |
The Million Mom March, which merged with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 2001, had expected as many as 5,000 people at its Capitol Hill gathering. About 2,000 attended, according to the Associated Press. As the event got under way Sunday, the crowd was more likely in the hundreds rather than the thousands. It was nowhere near the 500,000-750,000 people who reportedly attended the first anti-gun rally on Mother's Day in 2000. Several blocks away, several hundred supporters of the Second Amendment Sisters gathered for their own rally. Speakers stressed the need to guard their Second Amendment rights, especially during an election year. The race between President Bush and presumptive Democrat nominee John Kerry was a topic at both events. Volunteers from the Kerry campaign canvassed the Million Mom March looking for supporters. Many attendees donned "Women for Kerry" stickers.
While organizers of the Million Mom March said the crowd numbers alone shouldn't be used to judge the importance of their campaign, critics thought otherwise. John Michael Snyder, public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said voters sent politicians a strong message after Congress enacted the 1994 ban on semi-automatic firearms. He said that has played a role in the debate.
"When the Democratic party in congressional elections later that year lost control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first times in 60 years, President Clinton, the most anti-gun chief executive in the history of the United States, admitted publicly that enactment of the ban was one of the major reasons for the astounding political defeat."
| And why it'll never make it to President Bush's desk. |
|